Mount
A mount is an creature that is used to transport another creature. Typically, mounts used by humanoids are large and can move much faster then the humanoid could on foot. The vast majority of mounts have only low, animal level intelligence, though some creatures of greater intelligence willing serve as mounts. Flying Mounts Since flight is the most effective way to travel, especially between the islands of the Sea of Stars, various attempts have been made to breed and raise various flying creatures to provide transport with only some limited success. Greater success has been found in creating mounts for elite military units whose patrons can afford the great expense of maintaining such exotic and temperamental creatures. Among such creatures are: Giant Dragonflies, strange creatures created using subtle magic and even then only in small numbers. The dragonflies only live two or three years once matured enough to ride and are only controlled through magic. This creature make up the mainstay of the aerial patrols of the Jade Pillar Dynasty, operating in flights of three, one sorcerer with two heavily armed escorts. Giant Eagles and other birds of unusual size, the giant eagles suffered heavily along with the lands and the elves in the Sundering. The few that survived, like the elves, slowly recovered their numbers. Other giant birds have been found and breed, the most famous of which are the riding ravens and their black riders that serve the Lord of the Hub. Griffons and Hippogriffs, griffons are preferred as being larger, more intelligent and more mannered. As a point of prestige many kingdoms maintain a unit of griffon (or hippogriff) knights as their premier military order. The expense of maintaining such creatures, and their riders, has ruined more than one petty king as well (at least one such ended up being fed to the hippogriffs after a palace coup). Star Ibex, these black horned and hoofed goats are very large, large enough for a child to ride upon. Their hooves stand and grip the space between the stars as though it were sand at least in the areas near to the islands. Their hooves have been used to make shoes that allow the wearer to walk as the Star Ibexes do. Other have built enchanted chariots pulled by Star Ibex that traverse the surface of the space between the stars. Pegasi, the primary riders of pegasi found on the side of the gods against the dragons and their numbers were sorely depleted and the Sundering almost drove them extinct. In the modern age there are but a small number of Noble or True Pegasi who remain the full nobility of their kind and a rather larger number of False or Lesser Pegasi (or ‘flying horses’) who, while able to fly, have none of the grace or intelligence of their forebears. The Eosiant Kingdom has aggressively tried to gather pegasi (of all kinds) and the King has over fifty Knights of the Shining Sky mounted on these unusual creatures. It is said that False Pegasi is a favored meal among the dragons. Umrays, these vicious, and near mindless, creatures of the space between the stars have been captured by some enterprising wizards who have attempted to tame or, at least, harness them. So far their most successful use has been as a tow system for star ships but who know what may be developed in the future. Sky Whales, these large, gentle beasts of the air appeared after the Sundering. They go where they will and are very difficult to catch (though there are sky ship whalers). Some pods of sky whales have colonies of wandering folk who ride on their backs and aid the sky whales in a symbiotic relationship. Wyverns and other lesser dracoforms, these beings are usually only harnessed by the Draconic Houses for fear of insulting the dragons. In truth, the dragons do not care, but the fear remains. The dracoforms are difficult to bring into service but loyal once won over. The largest numbers of such creatures are found among the armies of the Dark Star Dominion. Equipment * Rider's shield: This shield's AC bonus also applies to the mount. Use when you would normally use a heavy shield. Classes * Faith ScionUA: If you're using the rules for legendary weapons, this class will advance a ton of abilities at once. Oh, and you also get a hammer. Tongue * Halfling OutriderCW: Dual advancement for animal companions and special mounts. * Silverwood OutriderWeb: Grants benefits for Wild Cohorts, animal companions or special mounts. However, since it does not actually advance their abilities, there is little reason to use this for an animal companion. With a special mount it makes even less sense, since special mounts are intelligent and don't need to be handled or learn tricks. A one-level dip makes Ride a class skill for all classes, which even applies retroactively - don't take any more levels than this unless you have a Wild Cohort. * Wild Plains Outrider: Advances either animal companion or special mount * Wizard (lv5 "High One Warrior-Wizard" ACF): Combine your familiar with your animal companion. * Bard (Fey bardUA ACF): Trade bardic music and knowledge for druid animal companion and some other minor abilities. * Sorcerer (Blood of EberronDR351 ACF): Replace familiar with ranger animal companion, Natural Spell feat works for any kind of shapeshifting. Feats * Attain Familiar: * Celestial MountBoED: Special mount gains celestial template. For an ubermount with huge numbers of HD this can be worth adding for the Spell Resistance, but normally the bonuses aren't really significant. * Cloak DanceXPH: Take this if you find that you have move actions to spare while mounted. You gain concealment as a move action, or total concealment as a full-round action. * Close CohortDR346: If you have Leadership your cohort is one level lower than you, rather than two levels. It isn't much of a stretch to apply this to alternatives like Dragon Cohort. Talk to your DM before trying to combine it with thrallherd. * Co-ordinated StrikeRotW: +1 attack bonus against any foe your animal companion or special mount has struck in the same round. I'd just take Knowledge Devotion instead. Heck, Weapon Focus is better than this. * Devoted Tracker: Lets you designate your special mount as your animal companion. The possibilities are endless. Forms the basis of the ubermount build when combined with a way to advance both at once (such as bloodline levels or certain PrCs). * Dragon Cohort: Like Leadership, but better. Well, if you wanted a dragon anyway. * Dragon Steed: * Fast RiderDR285: Your mount gets +10ft speed when it has no less than a light load. * Gestalt AnchorCP: +2 to Ref and initiative is pretty nice but your mount needs to take a Host feat, and you need to either do the same or be a kalashtar. Choose the latter if possible. See also Psymbiot. * Holy MountDR325: All levels in divine spellcasting classes count as paladin levels for determining your special mount's abilities. Paladin's a pretty weak class compared to most divine casters, so this means you don't have to take many levels in it. Gets better with cleric X/prestige paladin 2 builds. Nasty when combined with Devoted Tracker. * Improved Familiar: * Improved Psicrystal: Ignore the extra personality. What you're interested in is the +1 level for determining abilities, which means +1HD, which means extra attack bonus and feats for your psicrystal. Basis of the "Big guy is with me" build. * Leadership: Source of mount with its own gp supply. * Mounted Combat: The basic riding feat, and a prereq for most others. It's pretty easy to get a higher Ride check than your mount's AC, so it's a useful effect. * Mounted FuryWeb: If you can rage, your mount can rage with you. The benefits are obvious. Note that you must be riding your mount when you start raging, and the mount stops raging if you dismount. * Natural Bond: Practiced Spellcaster for animal companions - increase your level by 3 for the purposes of determining its abilities, to a maximum of your character level. It's a reasonable stretch to allow this to apply to Wild Cohorts as well. This gets interesting when applied to beastmasters, who have a level cap 3 higher than normal. It gets really interesting if you can use it to get higher-level companions faster. * Phalanx FightingCW: Consider this if your mount can hold and use a shield (via race or feats). See "feats for mounts" for more details. * Psicrystal Affinity: Source of potentially impressive mount, but only if transformed. * PsymbiotCP: Grants benefits if both you and your mount have manifester levels of 3. The latter can be handled by having your mount take a combination of Hidden Talent and Practiced Manifester, or a Host feat, which also qualifies you for Gestalt Anchor. * Saddleback: 1st level only. You can always take 10 on Ride checks. Once per round you can reroll a Reflex save as a Ride check - this applies to either you or your mount, or both if you must both save against the same effect. Your mount probably has Improved Evasion, so the second one is more useful when used on yourself. Still, on a clumsy character the ability to reroll Reflex saves at a higher bonus is hardly shabby, and taking 10 is useful too. * Share SoulmeldMoI: If you can already shape soulmelds, chances are good that at least one of them will benefit your mount. * SlowUA: Both the trait and the flaw of this name reduce your speed. A dwarf PC or one wearing heavy armour who takes both will find himself with a speed of only 5ft per round. However, as long as you stay on a mount your own speed will never come up, meaning that you essentially get Improved Toughness and a second feat for free. * Strength of the ChargerOA: Odd feat. Bonus to hp and Fort saves while mounted equal to mount's Con modifier. * Theurgic BondDR325: Allows levels in animal companion classes to stack for familiar abilities or vice versa. The "vice versa" is the more interesting here, since familiars don't get nearly as much as animal companions. * Theurgic MountDR325: Arcane version of Holy Mount. Probably weaker unless you have combined your mount with your familiar. The Fey bard variant which receives an animal companion can use this to great effect with Devoted Tracker. * Thrall BredLoM: Choose one creature with more HD than you. You gain a +1 bonus to saving throws and damage rolls while they're within 30ft and doing okay, and a -2 penalty when they're not. Ubermounts will easily have more HD than their riders, so why not? Doesn't work the other way around since it's Humanoid only. * Tunnel RidingRoS: Lets you fit a Large mount in a Medium space, with the only penalty being halved movement speed. You can now go anywhere with your mount that you could go normally, meaning that you don't have to waste actions to get on and off if caught in an ambush. Keep etiquette in mind though - the king might not like muddy hoof marks in his throne room. The alternative to this feat is to play a Small character with a Medium mount. * Wild CohortWeb: Animal companion on the cheap, with entry to two interesting PrCs. * Winter's MountFB: Special mount gains cold subtype and +2 Con. If your mount already has the fire subtype this will make it immune to both cold and fire. Otherwise, the fire vulnerability offsets the extra HP somewhat. Equipment for mounts Would a fighter go into battle naked? Well, why should his steed? Saddle You take a penalty for riding bareback, so this is important. Of note in Core are the military saddle (which keeps you from falling out) and the exotic saddle (required for unusual mounts). Armour After saddles, the first thing you'll want to look at is barding. The costs of a suit of armour for a quadruped are doubled, and every size category above Medium doubles it again. Since most mounts are Large quadrupeds, that's 4x the cost before enchantments. Since speed is probably one of the reasons you have a mount in the first place, it's best to stick to light armour. If you want more AC you can go with a mithral breastplate. Weapon Not many mounts can use these, but an amulet of natural attacks or necklace of natural weapons can help out. Other * Hand of the Mage: 600gp necklace grants at-will mage hand for mounts without hands of their own. Cheap enough that its effects can be added to another item without becoming too costly. * Horseshoes of FlameSS: Good Boccob these are ridiculous. 90ft fly speed (good), +1d4 fire damage to hoof attacks, +2 Dex, +10 Int, +6 Cha. For 30,240gp. According to the rules they work only for "an ordinary horse", though this is ill-defined. Does a warhorse count as an ordinary horse? What about a legendary horse? If your mount has ranks in Use Magic Device they can use them regardless. Heck, with UMD his rider can use them - no-one will care how silly he looks if he's a wizard running around with a +10 bonus to Int. * Horseshoes of Speed: +30ft enhancment bonus to base land speed for 3,000gp is a pretty good deal. * Horseshoes of a Zephyr: You float just above the ground, meaning that you can cross water and quicksand and don't leave tracks. Might also allow your mount to avoid traps based on pressure plates. 6,000gp. * Phoenix cloakMIC: Grants fly speed based on land speed. Nice upgrade to a fast land-based mount. Feats for mounts Not all mounts can get feats, but they can be extremely useful. While PCs need feats as prerequisites for prestige classes, most mounts do not have class levels; thus their choices are a lot more open. Keep an eye out for short-range aura effects, and feats which grant entry to alternate magic systems. This thread has some advice on these. Note that you can swap out any of the feats a mount comes with as long as they aren't bonus feats. * Aberration BloodLoM: Some interesting feats in this chain. See also Mourning MutateDR359, which is treated as Aberration Blood but has a different set of options and does not require you to be humanoid. o DeepspawnLoM: Gain two tentacles. Combine with the gloves of manSS item to allow the mount to use its tentacles as hands. You also qualify for the Extended ReachSS feat and extend tentacles spell (which can be made permanent), but there are other ways to get reach. o Inhuman ReachLoM: +5ft reach. Now psicrystals can threaten adjacent squares even in their natural form. See also Deformity (tall), which grants much the same benefits but only for Medium creatures. o WaterspawnLoM: Your mount now works just as well in water as on the ground. Nice - this is a blue feat for aquatic campaigns. Also it gets resistance to cold 5 for some reason. * Airy Gallop: An obscure source (link), but an interesting way to get pseudo-flight. Requires "Con -" for some reason, meaning an undead or construct mount. * Air HeritagePlanH: +30ft fly speed. Nifty. Also +2 to Jump and Balance while unburdened. * Awaken Frightful PresenceDrac: More potent than the Frightful Presence feat, the real gem here is combining this with Dreadful Wrath to get a massive radius and increased DC. If you have Frightful Presence and Dreadful Wrath the bonus should apply to both of them. You have to be a dragon to take the feat though. * Bind VestigeToM: While the image is hilarious, make sure your mount is actually capable of carrying out the binding ritual. If it can, this can be a pretty good choice. * Cumbrous Dodge: If you are immune to fatigue (eg. if you are an undead or construct) this is essentially +2 free AC. Requires Dodge, but there are good alternatives like Desert Wind DodgeToB and Expeditious DodgeRotW. * DarkstalkerLoM: Hide from unusual senses like blindsight and scent. A good feat, but not very useful to a mount unless its rider has Darkstalker too. The ability to flank creatures with all-around vision is nice in combination with Martial Stance (island of blades) though. * Draconic AuraDM: Gets you a 30ft aura (benefiting both rider and mount) from the lists in Player's Handbook 2 and Dragon Magic. If your mount has the Dragon type or dragonblood subtype (see Dragontouched below) the bonus scales by level (up to +4). Otherwise it stays at +1. Ubermounts have large amounts of HD, so they'll hit this cap pretty quickly. You can gain more than one aura, and switch between them (or use two at once if you have the Double Draconic Aura feat from the same source). * DragontouchedDM: Gain the dragonblood subtype. Qualifies you for feats which grant various things like wings, though since some of those are lv1-only you'll need to take flaws to get them. If your type is Dragon you already count as dragonblood, so you don't need this feat. * Dreadful WrathPGtF: 1st-level only, gain a form of Frightful Presence. It's a regional feat, so you may have trouble getting it approved by the DM. Can be a great help to a rider with a fear-based build. * Frightful PresenceDrac: Check how many HD you have before taking this feat. If you're a combo cohort-mount-companion you should have enough for this to be useful a reasonable percentage of the time, but usually most monsters are too high level for this to work. Dreadful Wrath has a lower radius but no HD limit, and is usually preferable. Combining the two feats can be effective. * Illithid HeritageLoM: This feat chain requires a power point reserve. Wild Talent will get you that, though it will make the feats which expand your Powers Known useless. o Illithid GrappleLoM: Improved Grab is interesting, but you can only use it on creatures within one size category of you. That means horses can't use this feat on halflings, while psicrystals can hardly use it on anything. See also Deepspawn above. o Illithid BlastLoM: A character without levels in a manifesting class can still qualify for this feat with the Hidden Talent and Practiced Manifester feats. o Illithid LegacyLoM: Likewise for this feat, though Greater Illithid Legacy is out of your reach (unless you take a Host feat as well). While psionic charm and read thoughts can be useful, you won't have enough pp to use them unless you take the Psionic Talent feat a few times or get an external source of pp. Your rider, on the other hand, can use the rules for manifesting powers from another mind. * Mage SlayerCW: Normally the kind of thing you always wanted to take, but were never able to fit in. Nothing says to mages like this feat chain. * Martial Stance/Martial StudyToB: Kung-fu ponies. Hurrah! o Martial Stance (island of blades)ToB: When you and an ally both threaten an opponent, the two of you are treated as flanking. Nice if the rider has sneak attack. This works just as well on riders, but the rider is likely to have fewer spare feats. * Mighty Roar, GreaterSS: The standard Mighty Roar is inferior to frightful presence of any kind, but the improved version renders enemies panicked for 2d6 rounds. Must be an animal or magical beast of at least Large size, meaning that this will mostly see use with druids and paladins. * MindsightLoM: Near-perfect detection abilities for mounts with telepathy (including psicrystals) - you are aware of the location of anything with a mind in range of your telepathy, as well as its Int and type. The rider can't see them, but his mount can direct him to the right square. Plus it can alert the rider to ambushes. * Mourning MutateDR359: See Aberration Blood * Natural Spell: For druids who transform into mounts. Any sane druid would take this feat, but it bears repeating. * Phalanx FightingCW: If you get your mount some way to hold items then you two can use this feat. Note that an unarmed strike is a light weapon, so a heavy shield is all that's required for the tasty +3 AC/+1 Reflex bonus. * Prehensile TailSS: Now your mount, too, can wield a weapon! If your mount does not have a tail slap, Draconic TailRotD will get them one. * PsymbiotCP: This is a feat which grants some nice bonuses when a creature with ML3 is within 10ft. The restriction is that it can't be "any psionic creatures crafted, projected, or summoned by you". There's nothing to stop the summoned creature from using the summoner to fuel the feat though, making this a good choice for Hidden Talent psicrystals. * RapidstrikeDrac: If you have a "pair" of natural weapons (two claws) etc. you can make an extra attack with them. You can take this feat once for every pair of weapons you have. o Improved RapidstrikeDrac: Every time you take this feat you can make four extra attacks per turn. Seriously. * ReverberationSS: Ability Focus for sonic attacks. Except that it stacks with Ability Focus. * Shape SoulmeldMoI: There are a lot of interesting options here, though for some purposes it's better for the rider to take Share Soulmeld instead. * Travel DevotionCC: This is a great feat, but your mount will need some way to turn undead to make use of it properly. * Virulent PoisonSS: +2 DC for extraordinary poison attacks which stacks with Ability Focus. * Vow of PovertyBoED: This is just plain ridiculous if you can get it allowed. Normally the cost of this feat is that you must give up all your magic items and gold, but most mounts don't have their own supply of gold anyway. If you ride a cohort, thrall, or other party member, this feat will hurt you more than it helps. * Wild Talent: Opens the door to psionic feats, which can be good. If you have a psicrystal, take Psicrystal Containment and have your psicrystal take this feat (and Psychic Meditation, if you want) - now your psicrystal can take a move action to restore your psionic focus, allowing you to theoretically expend four psionic focuses per round. o Hidden TalentXPH: A 1st-level-only variant of Wild Talent which appears only in the XPH (it's not in the SRD), this feat also gives you the ability to manifest a single 1st-level power at manifester level 1, with Charisma as your base manifesting stat (if you can already manifest powers this functions like Expanded Knowledge instead). With the Practiced Manifester feat you can increase your ML to 5. o Host featsCP: Can be even better than Hidden Talent - these feats grant you a 1/day psi-like ability with ML equal to half your HD. Or rather, two psi-like abilities, but you can only use one of them per day. Also qualifies you for Gestalt Anchor, which is pretty cool with a kalashtar rider. Otherwise, don't take one of these unless you need a manifester level to meet a prereq * Willing DeformityBoVD: This is a vile feat, so you must be evil to take it. +2 Intimidate in Book of Vile Darkness, increased to +3 in Heroes of Horror. This chain grants some interesting abilities on its own, but the Intimidate bonuses also synergise with a fear-based build. *Deformity (gaunt/obese)BoVD: These feats are, naturally, opposites of each other. One gives +2 Dex and -2 Con, the other grants -2 Dex and +2 Con. Some skill bonuses as well. An undead mount can take the (gaunt) feat and ignore the penalty, since it lost its Con score when it became undead. There aren't many feats which grant +2 to an ability score. *Deformity (tongue)BoVD: Blindsense 30ft. Mindsight is better, but not everyone has telepathy. Mounted combat (melee) Melee combat from horseback comes down to jousting. Charge the enemy as hard as possible, and be out of range before they can strike back. For this the Ride-By Attack feat is essential. One major obstacle for you is your inability to make more than one melee attack per round. There are PrC abilities which can help this though, and if you have some form of Pounce it applies to your mounted charges. A rider is considered to be in all of his mount's squares at once, which means that you threaten squares as if you were a creature of the mount's size but with your own reach. Items * Lance: While mounted, you can wield a lance in one hand and your charge attacks deal double damage. Note that just because you can, you don't have to wield it in one hand. Most charger builds benefit more from a two-handed weapon and Power Attack * Battle BridleMIC: 9k, grants Mounted Combat and a +5 bonus to Ride checks. If you already have Mounted Combat you get Ride-by Attack instead. A melee character should upgrade to Riding Boots when it becomes possible. * Riding BootsMIC: For 12,000gp you get +5 to Ride checks, Ride-by Attack as a bonus feat, and a boost to the power of Spirited Charge if you have it. Feats * Cavalry ChargerCW: * Ride-by Attack: While not as good as Fly-by Attack, this is much easier to qualify for than Spring Attack, and you get more total movement out of it (a charge as opposed to a move action). Note that you must continue in a straight line after you attack, unless you or your mount has a "crooked charge" ability of some kind. The downside is that, well, by RAW it isn't actually possible to keep moving in a straight line after charging except in a small number of situations, since this would result in you moving through your enemy's space. The designers probably intended that you could make an overrun attempt as a free action as part of using this feat (it seems to have been written before the overrun rules were finalised), but make sure you clear up this issue with your DM. * Spirited Charge: Double damage on mounted charge, or triple damage if you use a lance? Boo-yah! * Trample: This feat was clearly written with horses in mind - it's not clear what happens when something like an ashworm is entitled to a free "hoof attack", though it should probably be taken to mean their primary attack. If you can use this feat with a mount with a nasty primary attack then this can be decent, particularly if you have access to Fell Trample. Usually, though, it's better to just have your mount trip the enemy while you attack it. Consider having your mount take Improved Trip instead. Classes * CavalierCW: This class takes your Spirited Charge feat and turns it up to eleven. Unfortunately, you can only use its insane damage multipliers a limited number of times per day. * Knight Phantom5N: Gish class - 9/10 spellcasting, full BAB. Your phantom steed advances faster (+10CL!) and you also get it as a 1/level spell-like ability. Importantly, the SLA version takes only a standard action to cast rather than the normal 10 minutes. You also get some phantom-themed abilities. * Bone Knight5N: Grants a special mount which stacks with paladin levels, and applies the skeleton template to it. Also you get armour made out of bones. Mounted combat (ranged) Ranged combatants have a significant advantage - they can make full attacks while mounted, effectively giving them two sets of actions per turn. Your attacks, however, take place between your mount's two actions. (eg. your mount moves, you attack, your mount moves again) If your mount is taking a full-round action to move (such as running or charging) you make the attacks at the halfway point. Note that you cannot use longbows while mounted (they're too long and get in the way). You can use shortbows, composite shortbows and composite longbows fine though. Feats * Mounted Archery: Halves the attack roll penalties for making ranged attacks from horseback. A must. o Improved Mounted ArcheryCW:If you have Mounted Archery you take only a -2 penalty for attacking while your mount is running, and no penalty otherwise. Also, you can attack at any point in your mount's movement. Mounted combat (spellcasting) The biggest obstacle to any wannabe cavalry mage is that it's hard to focus on a spell while being jostled about. Your mount must take no more than one move action per turn, so that you can do your thing before or after it's done. Otherwise, you have to make a Concentration check or lose the spell. If you use a lot of spells requiring ranged attack rolls, the advice in the ranged combat section also applies to you. Given that this increases the feat investment needed to pull the combat style off, it's recommended that you don't learn/prepare many such spells. You can take the hit to accuracy in many cases since you roll vs touch AC, but who knows when you might have to cast a spell while running? Items * Steadying RobeCM: You no longer have to make Concentration checks to cast spells while being jostled around. And for only 1,000gp? Very nice. By item-stacking rules you could make this slotless for 2,000gp, in case you're a gish who doesn't want a robe taking up his armour slot. Otherwise, most robes can be crafted as cloaks without an increase in price. Feats * Mounted CastingMiniHB: You gain a +10 bonus on Concentration checks made to cast spells while mounted. Nice, but pointless if you can get Mounted Spellcasting instead. Due to the wording, however, you might be able to interpret this as a bonus to all spellcasting-related Concentration checks (including casting spells while taking damage), as long as you are on a horse while you make them. * Mounted SpellcastingWeb: Superior to Mounted Casting, this feat lets you cast spells while mounted without having to make Concentration checks for movement. Requires 5 ranks in Concentration though, so you'll have to wait until 2nd level. Classes * Arcane Heirophant: Dual-progression arcane/druid, lets you combine your familiar and animal companion. * Knight Phantom5N: Gish class - see melee section. * Silverwood ArcanistWeb: Requires Wild Cohort. Grants faster handling, Mounted Spellcasting as a bonus feat, and Share Spells. Full spellcasting advancement. * Zhentarim SkymageLoD: *snorts milk out nose* This would be powerful even without the mount it gives you... which can be basically anything. Oh, and you can share spells both ways, meaning that you can ride a dragon and have him share his buffs with you.